I’m not sure that I understand your reasoning on the GST – I wouldn’t object to a rise in GST on non-essential items but surely imposing it on food is only going to hurt those with lower incomes even more, isn’t it?

I don’t have any truck with the Catholic church or any other for that matter and they certainly should be held to account for what some of their representatives have done and what their organisations have hidden. However, not that I’d object to what you suggest or that it is anything they don’t deserve – I would prefer to see the cancellation of all tax exemption or concessions to religious institutions. I see no reason whatsoever why a church should be able to gain tax exemption.

The fighters are a bad joke & I agree with cancelling them but I don’t see any need to buy the drones. We can’t defend Australia even with the fighters. If, for instance, the Indonesians wanted to take us over they only have to keep on landing. How many could we shoot? Less than 24,000,000 of us & 400,000,000 of them – they just need to keep coming.

The paid parental leave scheme should be scrapped altogether. The narrow feminist agenda which is only concerned with working women and the ‘career climbers’ at that is not about gender – it’s about selfishness. What’s needed, to be fair to all women, is a recognition of unpaid work… There’s lots of talk about needing more child care & having to get more women into the workforce. Why do we need more participation when we already have a surplus workforce 0f 6% across the board and a whole lot more in particular sectors of the community. I’d also like to know why working women should be paid for caring for children or subsidised for paying others to do it whilst those women who choose to stay home and care for their children get SFA – and are demeaned for their choice, too.

I’d love free travel to Tasmania for myself – but, for everyone? I’d rather Tasmania be left to those who take the effort to discover its beauty and care for it. If we are going to ban things, let’s ban anyone but environmentalists from running for office in Tasmania – and perhaps even from living there. That way there may be a few thousand acres of Australia not destroyed to fill fat-cat pockets.

Let’s increase the ABC & SBS budgets by 100% each AND make them independent of government interference.

I’m all for stopping this bullshit about Australia not being Australia when it suits the xenophobic bastards who are in charge. So yes, close the concentration camps, open the border and let’s honour our international commitments and take a more ethical and moral approach to immigration and to aiding asylum seekers.

Not sure about the home insurance, rent, and value limit on housing. I do agree that something needs to be done in this area and I do believe that it should be done by government & owned by government – not left to the private sector. I guess I’d be more disposed to heavy taxes on those who own more than one dwelling or a dwelling with more than twice as many bedrooms as people living it. I’d also stop any writing off of maintenance costs by private landlords, if they remain – no one should be able to make money out of someone else’s need for a roof.

Finally – let me just say that I don’t pretend any deep understanding of economic imperatives etc. I’ve just looked after myself and family for 50 years as a normal working guy. Never earned more than $80,000 a year before tax – even with 3 degrees obtained through study whilst supporting a family. The one thing I do know is that a society based on materialism and the valuing of everything in $$$ terms is not a good one and never will be. We need to stop arguing on the terms that the Liberal / Capitalists have set up and start to argue on our own terms, about real values and real lives – not just how much money equals success.

Done.
You got me, Mr. Ellis. Not only did I smile while reading this, by the time I got to “Asian waitresses”, I was laughing out loud.
This is my kind of economics. Brilliant.
I’m off to the right side to press one of your yellow buttons.
Welcome to my paid service.

Why do we need to worry about achieving a surplus? Our national debt is low and we have a bit of a gap between revenue and expenditure but nothing to get our knickers in a twist over. There are always good years and not so good years.

We had good years as far as revenue goes when Howard was charge in and the ‘most profligate prime minister’ in Australia’s history wasted most of it on wars and middle class welfare, oh, and keeping his brother out of the bancruptcy courts. But, hey, the good times will roll around again and we need to hope that the LNP are not around to divvy up the goods amongst their mates again.

Exactly, Vicki – I don’t know why a ‘balanced budget’ is such a vote-winner. Perhaps it dates back to Margaret Thatcher and Milton Friedman (a sloganeering nincompoop if ever you need one). National income and expenditure is cyclical, and sometimes there will be less, and sometimes more.

Of course, only a dictator could impose a 100% marginal tax rate but I’ll take this as a proxy for pointing out that rent-seeking landowners often don’t pay anywhere near enough tax on their economic rents acquired with very little effort.

How about we demand refunds on the princely salaries paid to any Fed or state Parliamentarian forced to resign due to ICAC allegations. It should yield a tidy sum.

Here’s the latest senior NSW government Minister to bite the dust:

“New South Wales Police Minister Mike Gallacher has resigned after being named in the latest Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry.

The ICAC has heard claims that Mr Gallacher and former energy minister Chris Hartcher hatched a plot to hide donations from a development company controlled by mining magnate Nathan Tinkler to an alleged Liberal party slush fund.”

Ye Olde Schadenfreude Meter is going to explode if the ICAC allegations of evildoers in the Coalooters’ governments keep on spreading like that 1950′s horror movie, “The Blob”!

I have just returned, still splendid in my Abercrombie and Fitch Safari suit (pith helmet with walnut leather strap optional) from the deepest, darkest wilds to bring you good people this gem, this blood fucking diamond.

Look in wonder.

The Sinclair Davidson Dictionary, Or, The Libertarian Semantic Shift

‘Like the Gillard government’s flood levy, the debt tax will also be temporary, applying only while the budget is in deficit….
…..a worker on $200,000 will be slugged an extra $4000 a year, while a taxpayer earning $400,000 will pay $8000 in extra tax.’

Worker = $200,000
Taxpayer = $400,000

Nicely done Sinc.
Nicely fucking done. And not one of your mouthbreathers blinked. Not one.

And for all you budding linguists or lexical semanticians out there, stay tuned tomorrow night as I present Davidson’s ‘this Abbott Levy hurts so bad I need to eat shit and die’ distinction between Gillard’s “There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead’ and Abbott’s Dec2009 “there will not be any new taxes as part of the Coalition’s policies.”

That’s a nice find Fed, and the distinction is well worth bringing to our attention but let’s face it this is barrelled fish shooting.

I want to tie Melissa Babbage to $75 Trillion worth of Deutsche Bank Derivatives with insider trading on the sale of Medibank and Hockey’s budget celebrated with a bottle of Grange at a Tony Abbott for PM fund raiser.

The only way to stop Corruption is to freeze all of the parties , persons involved assets and nationalize’ them convert to cash then use to re purchase assets sold off by all Liberal and Liberal National fed or state governments.

He was mine once when a Queens Council I was the first ever to sue the Education Department for medical costs of $1000 to pay Newcastle Hospitals bill for a School Injury done by another student in a metalwork exam where there was no supervision in the Metal work room due to a staff meeting.